Stocking-loom



JOSEPH VICKERSTAFF, OF .PHLADELPHIA PENNSYLVNIA.

sTooK1NG-LooM- Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,023, dated March 20, 184:7.

To all whom t 'may concern.'

Be it known .that I, .JOSEPH VICKERSTAFF, of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Machine for `Making Knit or Looped Fabrics, and Ithatthe following isa full, clear, and exact description ofthe principle or character whichv distinguishes "it from all other things before known and of the manner of making, constructing, land using the same, reference being'h'adlto the accompanying drawings making part of this specication, in which- Y Figure lk is a perspective viewv of the machine; Fig. 2, a plan; `and Fig. .3, a .ver-

tical section taken through the `axis ofthe machine, on 'a larger scale-than the other i views; Fig. 4L, alike section of the looping part merely to Yrepresent the mode of. forming the loops; Fig. 5 represents three needles with the loops thereon, and Fig. 6 a diagram showing two ofthe needles withthe beaks forced 1n by the presser.

The same letters indicate like the figures.

The nature of my invention consists in forming the loops from a series of warps `.by means of a series of needles, arranged in a circle and parallel with each other, made to slide within a ring, that answers the purpose of a presser, so that the threads which are to form the new loops shall be caught under the beaks of the needles, before they are closed by the presser ring to allow the previously formed loops to pass over and be parts in all cast off the bobbins and guides being made' to travel around the needles, or to vibrate back and forth alternately accordlng to the design of the figure to be produced.

In the accompanying drawings (A) represents 'a frame properly adapted to the purpose, and (B) a hand lever by which the mechanism is to be operated. This lever passes through a mortise in a vertical piece l (H), the lower end of which slides in a guide standard (T), and itsv .upper end branches out to form an attachment with a sliding tube (D) which slides on an inner tube (G) attached to the standards of the main frame by brackets (b, b, b). The needles (L) are let into, and project from the upper edge of the cylinder (D),'so that they are arranged in a circle and parallel with each other, or nearly so. Those needles are made on the same principle as 'the needles of the well known stacking frame,

with a beak (c), the point -of which when depressed l-ies in a recess yso that the -pret viously formed loop may pass over the beak to be cast olf. The upper end of the inner tube or cylinder is swelled out as at (e),\.to

forma ridge against which the needles slide, when moved up and down, and` to prevent` ythem from yielding when the beaks Aare forced into the recesses in sliding bythe presser (R) which is a metal ring surroundi ing the range of needles. It is attachedy to l the `frame bythe arms (f, f) audits inner periphery is beveled up and down. to form an'edge to depress the beaks of the needles 'as they, slide by it. A table (F) is made to fit and -to turn on the outer surface andV shoulder of the presser ring (R) g-and carriesr as many bobbins (J) as there' are' needles. The threads or war s from each bobbin pass over a wire hoop vK)r`connected with the table by appropriate standards;l

and-from this hoop the Vthreads pass down, i

and through the ends of guides (S), one for each thread, andso arranged on the table as to be a little outsideof the needles, so as to present land'hold .the threads in such manner that they .shall be caught by the vbeaks of ,the vneedles to form new loops, as lthey descend. The fabric as it is woven passes -over the upper redge ofthe inner tube or cylinder and out at the `bottom thereof, under `a ,roller (U), and .thence aroundrollers (g, kg), in a vseparate frame to la windlass on which itis to be wound up, a weight (7c) being "hung by a loop'to lthe fabric between the upper roller (g) andthe windlass (71,) to keep the fabric in a proper state of tension to insure the casting off of the loops so soon as new ones are formed.

The needles are forced up by a spring (C) which bears on an adjusting screw connected with the frame and on the underside of the lever (B) so that when anew set of loops are to be formed the attendant forces down the lever which is then forced up again by the tension of the spring p At each operation the tube that carries the bobbins and thread guides must be moved around a distance of one needle so that the 'same thread shall make a loop on each needle in succession; this is effected by havingas many radial pins or cogs (p) projecting from the periphery of the table as there are needles, and on the lever (B) there is a roller (g) or a projection, which, as the lever is forced up actsy on and forces act on it to turn'the table.;

, around in the same direction it may have an alternate reciprocating motionrsothateach up a slide y (E) the oblique edge of which` acts on one of the cogs or pins (79) and forces the table around the required distance. And on the descent of the lever the slide descends by its own weight, and that it may catch onto the neXt cog it is provided with a jointed piece (r) which, as the slidel descends, turns on its joint pin to pass the cog, and so soon as its point has descendedv below the cog it falls back on a line with the oblique edge of the slide and under the next' cog, that it may at the next operation The manner in which the loops are formed is represented in Figs. 8, i and 5, where it will be seen that the last formed loopl (n) of the fabric is on the body of the needle, and below the beak, the needle, in Fig. 3, being supposed to be up V at its great-.L est height, and the fabric drawn down tight onto the upper edge ofthe inner cylinder, and below the edge of the presser." The thread (a) from the last formed loop isf v;circle, and parallel 'with each other, or

drawn up against the needle by the guide (S), so that as the needleis drawn down, it y 'ring means ofV ,whichgthe beaks of the needlesare closed to hold the' new and cast f oif the previously formed lgloops, substan- (the thread) shall be caught under the beak` (o), which is then by its continued motion' forced into'thej recess by the presser, and" there"v held that the'loop (n) may pass over the beak, ,as represented inFig. V4, and finally cast off over the end of the needle to hangonto the loop newly formed by the thread under the beak, which in turn is cast ofi' to hang ontoanothenfand so on. i

It will be obvious from the foregoing that thetable instead of receiving an intermittent motio-n may receivea continuous movement from an appropriate arrangement of mechanical means connected with the reciprocating motion of the needles, and that inl stead of moving the table continuously in one direction and then back. A" The lever for. :operating vthe machine infstead of being worked by hand may receive in that way carries its color' around the cirv:'cle Vas the fabric progresses; or the stripes or shades may be run Zig-Zag by moving the table of bobbins and guides for a few loops its motion'from some first mover by crank, or` cam motion, if desired. In short the mechanismbyv -which the movementsA are given may be variously changed without affecting the principle or character of `my invention.V Y

What I clairnasV my invention and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is`

1. The arrangementof the needlesin a nearly so, in combination with the `pressure tially as described; and thisIv claim in comi bination withM the inner tube over which the woven `fabric hangs, as herein described.

, 2. And 'finally I jclaiml'the-rotating tableV y which carries the warps andfguides, infcomfbination with the needles, arranged as d escribed, whereby the wa-rps can be carriedil laround f continuously in one direction, or

alternately in opposite directions, for the purpose and in the manner substantially4 as described.

Y JOSEPH VICKERSTAFF.

Witnesses: y

' A. P.'BRowNE, Y

I. I-I. VANZANDT. 

